


Leave This Place

by LunaYamiia



Category: Fire Emblem: Fuukasetsugetsu | Fire Emblem: Three Houses
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Amnesia, Angst and Humor, Escape, Gen, I made Byleth suffer in the prologue but it gets better alright, Isolation, Kidnapping, Male My Unit | Byleth, Memory Loss, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Please Don't Hate Me, Thriller, no betas we die like men
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-12-30
Updated: 2019-12-30
Packaged: 2021-02-27 12:53:33
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 2
Words: 3,131
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22027375
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LunaYamiia/pseuds/LunaYamiia
Summary: When Claude suddenly wakes up inside a locker without his memories, he's convinced he's dreaming. When he realises he's trapped in a maze of secrets and mysteries with seemingly no way out, he's convinced he's living a nightmare. With time rapidly running out and lives at stake, the line between nightmares and the twisted reality he's living begin to blur as he's forced to work with a ragtag team of strangers as they attempt to solve the several mysteries surrounding them and maybe, finally leave this place. For good.
Kudos: 10





	1. 0 - Prologue

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> [CONTENT WARNING| Unconsensual Touching & Emotional Distress]

He was cold.

He was so so cold.

He couldn't see.

He couldn't hear.

The couldn't move.

He could only feel, 

feel the cold against his skin.

" _ Byleth... _ "

There was a voice.

" _ Byleth... _ "

There it was again.

"Where-" He managed to croak out; his throat stung fiercely.

"Everywhere and nowhere..." 

He wanted to move, but he couldn't. Pain surged up his arms, and he let out a cry.

"There there..."

He felt something cold and wet against his skin.

"Where... Am I?" He rasped; feeling the burning sensation against the back of his throat, but he chose to ignore it.

"Everywhere and nowhere, Byleth." the voice repeated.

Byleth? 

Yes, that's what they had been calling him.

Was that his name?

Why couldn't he remember? That name didn't seem familiar; he felt as if he had never heard it before; how could it be his? He tried to think; tried to remember, tried to force it to all come back, but his efforts amounted to nothing. He couldn't remember, who was he? Who was there? Who was calling out to him? He felt unease at his lack of memories; he couldn't remember a thing before he had got here. All he remembered was waking up here; alone and cold.

But he wasn't alone now. That voice that had been calling; talking to him was there. Watching him. He could feel their eyes on him; their gaze crawling up and down his body, stare piercing through him. A knot of anxiety began to tighten in his stomach as the realisation came upon him.

"Are... Are you going to hurt me?" He felt the thought from his head escape his lips seemingly without his consent. The voice made a noise.

Was it laughing?

Byleth longed to be able to take a look at the owner of the voice; to see who was holding him captive but it was no use. He was most likely blindfolded, he felt the rough fabric irritating the skin on his face. His hands were most likely tied up, and tightly too. Pain pierced his arms every time he attempted to move them; it was no use trying. 

"I don't know." The voice said, "Maybe..." It trailed off, and Byleth felt as if the air had been knocked out of him as he felt a cold hand rest upon his leg. He could feel it through his trousers; damp but yet stiff and hard, almost as if it wasn't human. He held his breath, not realising that his body was shaking in terror as the hand moved slowly up his thigh. He tried to move; to escape. He squirmed in his seat; desperately trying to avoid what was, more quickly by the second, moving up his leg. It moved over his chest and up to his neck; it lingered there. A chill shot up his spine as a boney finger stroked his jaw and tilted his head upwards. He felt cold breath against the tips of his ears as the voice whispered:

" _ Don't try to escape, Byleth. _ "

Byleth had only now noticed the tears that were soaking the blindfold on his face; he opened his mouth, but words refused to come out.

"I might not kill you if you're good..." they hissed against his ear. 

"Please..." Byleth breathed, his voice trembling, almost inaudible.

"We'll see..." They withdrew their hand from his face and moved from his ear, letting out something akin to a chuckle.

"Let's see if they can save you..." 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ah, I'm sorry I made our poor baby Byleth suffer, I know this one was a little dark but it'll never really get as dark as this again (hopefully) Thanks so much for reading!


	2. 1 - If I Pinch Myself Will I Wake Up?

Claude didn't remember how he got there; all he remembered was waking up to pitch black. There was a lot of other stuff he didn't remember too; he only seemed to remember his name- strange. Where on earth was he? He extended his hand out in front of him, still only seeing black, and felt something cold against his fingertips. Was that metal? He pressed his whole hand against it- yup, definitely metal. He moved his fingers across the metal in front of him until the came to a stop. More metal? He turned his body and pressed his fingers against what was in front of him- it was to his right too. Turning to his left; he reached out; feeling the cool metal against his palm and concluded that it was indeed surrounding him.

"Where the hell am I?" Claude blinked as if it would somehow make things clearer, but of course- it didn't. He pressed hard against the metal wall, but it wouldn't budge.

"Is this some sort of sick joke?" He thought out loud as he began to push harder against each of the four walls that surrounded him. Nope, they still wouldn't budge. He frowned, beginning to forcefully shove himself into each of the walls,

"Why. Won't. You. Budge?" He hissed as he violently rammed himself into one of the walls. 

And then it fell.

One of the metal walls flew, crashing to the ground with a tremendous thud and Claude fell with it. As Claude looked up at the 'wall'; he began to realise that it wasn't a wall at all, but in fact- a door. He had been in a locker.

Claude blinked rapidly; his eyes adjusting to the sudden shift from dark to light.

"What the hell?" He wheezed; looking up from his position on the floor and surveying his surroundings. His inspection didn't last long though, as only a few seconds after he heard a yell.

"What the hell is this?!" 

Claude's eyes widened, the sound had come from the locker adjacent to the one he had just fallen out of. There were a couple of loud bangs from inside the locker and a girl came flying out. She landed on the floor, similar to him, and the door of the locker flew violently off of its hinges, clanging to the floor beside her. She sat up, brushing her pink hair out of her face and silently cursing to herself, she hadn't even realised Claude was there. As she looked up, their eyes met and they spent ten seconds staring at each other in awe. Her hair was pink, as mentioned before, and so were her eyes. Looking at her made Claude realise that he couldn't even remember what  _ he _ looked like himself. 

"Who are you?" The girl was the first to speak; a mixture of fear and suspicion donning her face.

"I was going to ask the same thing to you," the two hadn't stopped staring at each other, as if they were scared that the other was going to suddenly move. "But my name's Claude,  _ I think. _ " The girl opened her mouth as if to say something but closed it again; still continuing to stare at Claude. "I have no idea why I'm here either if that helps." Claude wondered if he'd scared the girl but as he said that her face softened a little.

"Thank God," She spoke finally, letting out a shaky breath."I thought it was just me, I'm pretty sure my name's Hilda." Claude nodded,

"So you can't remember anything?" Hilda shook her head, frowning

"I.. I can only remember my name, that's it." 

So the girl was in the same predicament as he was, this was all so  _ strange. _

"I'm so confused, all I can remember is waking up in that locker and my name, nothing else before that..." Hilda looked troubled for a moment,

"Oh gosh, I can't even remember what I look like!"

"Me neither, this is so weird..."

To Claude's surprise, Hilda smiled and laughed,

"Well, this is obviously some sort of practical joke." She waved her hand nonchalantly and Claude cast her a puzzled look. She looked at him and laughed again, 

"Well, there's no way someone would  _ actually  _ kidnap us, erase our memories and put us in lockers, right?" she caught wind of Claude's concerned expression and fear crept into her own, "Right?"

"I don't know." 

Hilda looked panicked,

"Have we really been kidnapped?!" Her eyes widened as she looked at Claude; he felt too bewildered with what was going on to answer her. 

Had they really been kidnapped? Had their memories really been erased? Was this really some sort of joke? Claude steadied his breathing, realising how laboured it had become.

"Let's calm down." He reassured Hilda; he looked around him at the room they were in and turned back to her. "Look, there's a door! We'll just walk out and this will all be over!" He pointed to a door on the wall parallel to them. Hilda didn't look so sure, but she nodded.

"Yeah, it'll be over," She seemed to force a smile and Claude stood up from the ground and dusted himself off. 

_ This will all be over.  _ He repeated to himself in his head, surely this wasn't real. Surely this was all a dream, no- a nightmare. He would wake up from this nightmare back in his bed at home- wherever that was.

He walked over to the other side of the room and Hilda followed suit, quickly standing up and cautiously trailing behind him. He approached the door and slowly put his hand on the handle; preparing himself with what could be on the other side. He turned it.

It was locked.

"Shit." He hissed under his breath and Hilda groaned.

"So we really are stuck in here." She huffed, "We're doomed."

"No, there has to be some way to unlock it- maybe there's a key hidden somewhere-" Claude started looking around the room for potential hiding spaces for a key.

"If there was a key in here then what would be the point of locking us in here?" Hilda interjected and Claude hated to admit that she was right.

"Well, that doesn't mean we shouldn't try," Claude said, trying his best to sound determined. He had no idea what was going on and why, but he knew that he wasn't going to stay here for much longer.

"Let's look around, maybe we may not find a key, but maybe we'll find something to knock the door down with,"

"Good idea," Hilda agreed and the search began.

For the first time since he had fallen out of the locker; Claude had the chance to properly examine the room around him. It was eerie. It seemed like a mishmash of several different types of rooms, not just one; it made Claude feel quite uneasy. On the opposite side of the room to the door were the lockers that both he and Hilda had fallen out of and two more next to them, but after opening each one he found that nobody else was there. On the adjacent wall hung several coats on hooks and below them on the floor were bags, each below an individual coat. They all seemed old, Claude had noticed, as if they hadn't been touched in a while. It made Claude wonder- how long had he and Hilda been in those lockers? Hilda searched the pocket of each, finding nothing until she reached the final coat.

"Claude, look!" She pulled out a card from the musty coat pocket.

"It looks like... a business card?" Claude squinted at it tentatively,

"Eisner... Argh, I can't tell what is says after that; it's been scrubbed out."

"Yes, but look; there are some numbers on the bottom!" Claude looked to where Hilda's finger was pointing- there were indeed a list of numbers at the bottom the card,

"946118037." Claude read aloud. "Do you think it's important?" Hilda shrugged,

"No clue." She said and Claude sighed, 

"Well, it's not the key so we may as well keep looking," Hilda nodded. 

The bags were each searched, turned inside out, but nothing was found. Claude furrowed his eyebrow in frustration as Hilda looked over the business card in her hand, turning it round as if she was expecting something to jump out at her. Shelves lined the walls next to the coats with books upon books upon books and Claude couldn't help but dread that the key might be hidden between one of them, it would take _ hours  _ to search and he didn't have that kind of time to waste. He skimmed the rows with his fingers; frantically searching for something,  _ anything  _ that could help them, but his efforts were nought. Hilda was below him; looking through a cabinet that fit snuggly underneath the shelves,

"Find anything?" He called down to her and she shook her head,

"Nothing." 

Claude sighed in exasperation and slight panic. Hilda was probably right; why would their captor hide the key for that would help them escape in the room that they were trapped in? It made no sense and yet he desperately wanted it to be true.

"Hey, Clauude." Hilda drawled; coughing slightly as a blanket of dust flew into the air, "I found this." She heaved a large, old rotary dial phone into her arms, Claude gave her a puzzled look.

"I don't know what we can do with it, maybe we can chuck it at the door or something," Claude stared at the dust-covered object in Hilda's arms and his eyes widened.

"Hilda, do you have that business card still?" Hilda frowned at him,

"Yeah... why?" Claude grabbed it from where the girl had awkwardly placed it between her fingertips.

"Hilda, I'm going to read out these numbers to you and I want you to put them into the phone, alright?" Hilda gasped and looked at Claude,

"You don't think- No it can't be."

"We'll never know if we don't try!" Claude hurried her as she knelt down on her knees and placed the phone on her lap.

"Ready?" Claude asked and Hilda nodded enthusiastically,

"Ready." She affirmed, swatting dust out of her face with one hand and getting ready to put in the numbers with the other. Claude read out the numbers one by one and Hilda put each and every one carefully into the phone. As Claude finished reading the final number, he looked down at Hilda who was putting it into the telephone. There was silence. Claude was almost about to sigh in defeat when a sound began to resound across the room.

_ bzzt bzzzzt bzzt bzzzzt _

A phone. Hilda looked up at Claude in awe and Claude looked down at her. Claude rushed over to the source of the noise; recognising that it was coming from the bags underneath the coat hooks. He picked up each and every one of the bags shaking them upside down and feeling each one with his hands frantically. Nothing.

"Claude!" Hilda called out, still holding the receiver in her hand, " _ Under _ you." Claude looked beneath him suddenly realised- the floorboards. It was  _ underneath _ the floorboards. Hilda dropped the phone off her lap and ran over to Claude's side.

"Find me something to break this floorboard!" He called to her and she hurriedly nodded before running off. Claude began to smash the floorboard with his fist; it would definitely bruise later, but that didn't matter to him now; he could worry about that when he and Hilda escaped from this room. Hilda returned to his side with the rotary dial phone in her arms,

"Try this!" She practically threw the phone at Claude as she moved out of the way so she wouldn't get caught by flying debris. Claude lifted the phone above his head and swung it down with astonishing force; the floor splintered beneath him and Claude desperately reached into the gap to pick up the phone. He heard a sigh of relief from Hild behind him as she rejoined him at his side to observe their newfound discovery. With a shaky hand, Claude pressed the phone's home button and it lit up. The home screen was a selfie of two men; one with dark teal hair who seemed to be taking the picture and an older, blonde man with a beard behind him; smiling awkwardly. Claude couldn't help but smile at the sight, it seemed so  _ human-  _ not that he could honestly remember what  _ human  _ was like, but it left him with a fuzzy feeling in his stomach. That was until realisation struck him; if this phone was here; something must have happened to the owner, it wasn't what he wanted to think about, but it seemed inevitable.

"Hey Claude, do you think this means anything?" Hilda pointed to a notification that was displayed on the home screen:

_ missed call from 451185 _

"Something... Maybe something..." Claude trailed off.  _ Think Claude, think. _

"Wait!" Hilda stood up swiftly, "Read that number out loud for me." Claude raised an eyebrow but didn't retort. He'd only known Hilda for 30 minutes and yet he felt he could trust her. Hilda dashed over to the bookshelf and looked back at him. Claude began to read out the numbers and Hilda began to skim through the books on the shelf as she came to a large leather book on the bottom shelf she gasped,

"Got it!" she retrieved it speedily and flicked to the contents page; quickly scanning the page before she let out another gasp and poked at a specific line with her finger before frantically turning the pages of the book; searching. Claude watched her with a mix of both confusion and admiration as she studied the top corner of each page intently before continuing to flick through. Her eyes widened and she lifted something from the book. The key.

"Hilda?!" Claude stared at her; mouth agape, "But how-" Hilda chuckled nonchalantly, but Claude could see the excitement brimming in her eyes,

"The  _ fourth  _ novel in the collection, chapter  _ fifty-one, eighteenth  _ page in, line  _ five. _ "

"Hilda, you're amazing! How did you think of that?" Hilda laughed again,

"When I really try I can be pretty useful," she winked, "Now let's get out of here," she beamed at him and Claude beamed back. They were going to escape. Maybe he'd finally wake up in his bed and realise that he had been asleep. Maybe he'd finally be able to remember who he really was. That had reminded him; he still had no idea what he looked like, he decided that the first thing he'd do when he woke back up would be to check a mirror. Hilda pushed the key into the lock and turned it; boy did that click sound satisfying. She reached for the door handle and twisted it; she pushed the door open to reveal:

Another room.

Claude didn't even have time to feel confused before Hilda shrieked,

"DUCK!" Claude ducked just in time as a chair flew rapidly over his head; it definitely would have decapitated him if he'd been a second too late. Claude looked up to see a dark-haired boy glaring at the both of them with rage in his eyes.

"Who the  _ hell  _ are you."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I wonder who that may be ;)))))) I hope you enjoyed the chapter and thanks so much for reading!


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